Palin to Secret Service agent: 'Check this out - you're fired ... the buck stops with the president'

Palin sounds off the GSA spending and Secret Service scandals, the US energy crisis and overall problem with leadership

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," April 19, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: First, talk about rotten luck! Governor Sarah Palin's finding herself right, smack in the middle of the Colombian Secret Service scandal. Now, how could that be? Well, The Washington Post reporting one of the agents booted from the agency was part of Governor Palin's vice presidential security team in 2008. That agent is David Chaney.

Now, he posted pictures on Facebook of himself and Governor Palin in 2008, writing comments like, "I was really checking her out, if you know what I mean."

Now, this is getting weirder by the minute. Governor Palin joins us now to react.

Good evening, Governor Palin. We actually invited to you talk about something else, but this crossed the wires from The Washington Post about a half hour, an hour ago. I'm curious, your thoughts about our very elite Secret Service, and in particular this agent.

SARAH PALIN, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR, FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: Well, this agent who was kind of ridiculous there in posting pictures and comments about checking someone out. Well, check this out, bodyguard. You're fired. And I hope his wife kicks his ocoli and sends him to the doghouse, as long as he's not eating the dog, along with his former boss.

Greta, you know, a lot of people will just, I guess, say that this is boys being boys. And boys will be boys, but they shouldn't be in positions of authority. And yes, I think it's pretty embarrassing.

But if you consider what's going on in the state of our government with -- you know, look who's running the show, the boys not considering that there are ramifications for their actions, whether it comes to a budget out of Congress and the White House, to GSA overspends, to the Secret Service scandals -- you know, I've had enough of these men being dogs and not being responsible and not entrusting -- and being able to allow us to trust what these boys are doing in Washington.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, you know, it's profoundly dangerous because, you know, the Secret Service is supposed to be watching the crowd, not the -- you know, not backside or whatever of the woman that he's standing behind, but watching the crowd. I suppose the agent didn't suspect you were going to commit suicide, have to protect you from yourself, so he had to watch you.

But even -- even -- you know, look at this thing with President Obama, is that, you know, they are down there in Colombia to protect our president. And whether you're Republican or Democrat, you know, we want our president protected at all times.

And they instead embarrassed the United States, but they also put the president at risk. Perhaps they could be blackmailed. So it is really -- it is extremely disappointing and almost terrifying if this -- this is the group.

And I don't mean to demean those who are doing their jobs right. But the ones who are not doing their jobs right, they're doing -- they're making it very dangerous.

PALIN: It's a symptom of government run amok, though, Greta. And it's, like, you know, who's minding the store around here? And when it comes to this particular issue of Secret Service, again, playing with the taxpayer's dime and playing with prostitutes and checking out those whom they are guarding.

You know, the president, for one, he better be wary there of -- when Secret Service is accompanying his family on vacation. They may be checking out the first lady instead of guarding her.

And I say that not just tongue in cheek, but I say that seriously, that the president, the CEO of this operation called our federal government has got to start cracking down on these agencies! He is the head of the administrative branch and all these different departments in the administration that now people are seeing things that are so amiss within these departments.

The buck stops with the president. And he's really got to start cracking down and seeing some heads roll. You know, he's got to get rid of these people at the head of these agencies where so many things, obviously, are amiss.

VAN SUSTEREN: You know, it's sort of interesting. One of the postings on Gretawire.com -- because I posted the story from The Washington Post, or a link to it as soon as it hit the wires, the one about you a minute ago. And someone made the remark about -- in essence -- I'm paraphrasing it -- how this -- in some ways, this might help Governor Romney because Governor Romney has taken -- you know, has been under fire for his statement when he said, I like to, quote, "fire people."

And while -- you know, and I know that that has been used as a -- you know, I know that has been part of the political discussion for the last 18 months.

I bet many Americans are thinking, especially, like, with GSA, You know what? Yes, I'd like to fire a lot of people, too. I'd like to fire the people who were going to Vegas.

I'd like to fire the Secret Service agents -- doing the work. You know, I'd like to fire the people who they made statements to and that, you know, just laughed in the office about what was going on and didn't have the -- didn't have the courage to step forward and be a whistleblower.

PALIN: You know, that's a very good point that somebody made. And it's known out there that our president has poor management skills. I don't think that -- many people have argued that point who know about this administration.

He doesn't have a lot of cabinet meetings. He doesn't have a lot of communications with those who are heads of departments and part of those running this huge, overly burdensome and oversized bureaucracy of ours in the federal, centralized government.

So again, replacing the CEO, replacing President Obama with someone who isn't afraid to fire people who are not doing their job, who are not being accountable...

VAN SUSTEREN: Except...

PALIN: ... to the people whom they are appointed to serve. It is time to make a change there.

VAN SUSTEREN: I mean, I -- I agree with you, yes, the buck stops with the boss always. I agree with that. However, the one thing that's, you know, at least I'm mindful of, the Secret Service event that happened with regard to you was during the race, when he wasn't even president. In fact, he was running against you.

So obviously, there were problems within the Secret Service as far back as then. As for the GSA, at least what I'm hearing is it goes back at least to the -- these sort of parties and wild things go back to the Carter administration.

You know, he is -- he is the president, so by virtue of that, he does get stuck with it. I think it's fair to say that he -- you know, that he - - he should take all the responsibility, the credit and the blame, for where the economy is.

But this one, you know, it's really not so much -- it's really how he reacts to it and what he does from here on, not that it -- not that it happened while he was president.

PALIN: Well, Greta, it's not just this particular issue, though, with GSA or with the Secret Service, it's everything that's going on in our federal government right now. What are we getting for the tax dollars that are being taken from our incomes, being sent to the federal government today?

We're getting higher unemployment numbers than when Barack Obama first took over. We're getting less energy secure than when Barack Obama took over.

There are so many problems in the federal government, and it does -- this leadership, starting at the top -- if the president isn't held accountable to make sure he's appointing the right people in these positions to help run our government, then we're in a world of hurt if we can't hold him accountable.

And the number one thing, Greta, that he is responsible for is -- he today violating Article 1, Section 19, Clause 7 of the United States Constitution in not having a budget. Going on three years, over a thousand days with no budget, no blueprint to run our federal government!

So it's no wonder that GSA is saying, Oh, budgets be damned. Nobody else has a budget around here. We're going to go spend other people's money and come what may because if even the bosses at the top of this ladder in the federal government don't have to be held accountable for a budget, then why should GSA?

VAN SUSTEREN: You know, I agree with you on the budget thing. I don't think there's anything to stop him from calling Senator Harry Reid up and saying, Look, you know, as the leader of the Democratic Party, get that budget to the Senate. I totally agree with you.

In terms of policies like energy, I think that he gets -- he gets all the blame, he gets all the credit. And he's the one who appointed Secretary Chu, and Secretary Chu is the one who signed off on Solyndra. Totally agree with you on those things, that the buck has to stop here, that, you know, he is the boss. So I agree with you on those things. And you know, for the voters, they'll have to make a decision whether they want him or not.

PALIN: Yes. Exactly. That's the bottom line. And thank God we live in America, where in this republic, we have these democratic votes that are taken, you know, every four years in November. And we get to decide whether we want the positive change that we so seek, that we so need in order to keep our nation solvent.

Thank God that we have that freedom. Thank God that we have the United States military fighting for the defense of freedom!

VAN SUSTEREN: And getting back, one last thing about Governor Romney's quote, "I like to fire people." As a practical matter, you know, you can't fire these government workers who are squandering and wasting our money, is that it really does take, you know, Capitol Hill. It takes members of Congress to change it, so that when people do perform so poorly, and you know, perhaps -- I mean, that's to put it gently, is that we need to restructure how you get rid of people who are doing these things. And Capitol Hill has been asleep at the wheel on that one.

PALIN: Yes, that's right. And we need to shrink government. We really do. And that's how you essentially fire people that today we're being told, Well, you can't fire all these incompetent people.

yes, you do. You tell budget directors to cut their budget. That's what I did, as a mayor and as a governor. I told our department heads, Cut your budgets by 10 percent, or I'll do it for you. And one of the ways that you can do it for them is to start eliminating positions. That's what our president, as the top of the food chain there, can start doing.